It's brew day, and there's a bustle of activity happening in and around FATE Brewing Co.'s brew house. Managers and staff hustle in and out of the walk-in cooler preparing for the day's lunch crowd, while head brewer Jeff Griffith and assistant brewer Josh Nard work on brewing a batch of Atropos Imperial IPA.

Nard mills bags of grain and delivers it to the 10-barrel brew kettle, which is quickly filling with hot liquor, as the water used in brewing is called. Soon the sweet smell of steeping grains intermingles with the enticing scent of smoked barbecue as it wafts in through the open back door. It's a heady bouquet that speaks to the heart of what FATE is all about.

FATE Brewing Co., which celebrated its first anniversary in February, has quickly established itself as an anchor of Boulder's east-side beer scene, which also includes BRU Handbuilt Ales & Eats, Wild Woods Brewery, Upslope Brewing's new brewery and tasting room and, until it moves into its new facilities in Gunbarrel, Avery Brewing Co.

FATE is the rare brewpub at which both the food and the beer are given equal weight, and both are executed in thoughtful and inventive ways.

"We're as much culinary as we are brewers," said owner Mike Lawinski, a veteran of Big Red F Restaurant Group who served as operations manager for the West End Tavern and Centro Latin Kitchen before founding FATE. "We pay a lot of attention to the sourcing of ingredients, and we make a lot of things from scratch.

Owner Mike Lawinski, left, and head brewer Jeff Griffith take pride in the evenness of FATE Brewing's beer and food. (Courtesy of FATE Brewing Co.)

"In beer and in food, the ingredients make a huge difference — where you get those ingredients, how fresh they are and how they're used."

FATE recently lightened up its menu for spring by including more vegetarian and seasonal offerings, in addition to core staples like its Choose Your Fate barbecue sampler platter.

FATE's beer lineup is also somewhat seasonal. At any given time you'll find at least 10 specialty beers and five core, year-round beers pouring from the restaurant's 30 taps, in addition to a variety of guest beers.

As with the food, getting a sense for the seasonality of a beer and how quickly it's selling are key in managing the logistics of a brewpub's brew house.

For example, FATE Norns, a German-style Roggenbier that includes spicy rye instead of wheat in its grain bill, usually peak in the fall and winter months, Griffith said. In warmer months, it's not unusual to pour through at least a dozen kegs a week of FATE Laimas, a bright Kolsch-style ale.

A version made with watermelon is also a hot seller. The brewery recently began offering its Watermelon Kolsch in canned 16-ounce four packs — FATE's first canned-beer offering. The beer is currently available at the brewpub and will be on local liquor store shelves later this month.

"Kolsch has been a passion of mine for a long time," Griffith said. "And our Watermelon Kolsch has established something of a cult following."

Griffith also brews a delicate Coffee Kolsch, as well as a Coffee IPA, brewed with Ozo Coffee. Recent projects also include a tequila-barrel-aged Gose that's brewed with salt and coriander and a Session IPA that's lower in alcohol yet bursting with hop flavor.

Griffith brewed four beers in concert with other breweries for a recent Collaboration Festival in Denver. He has brewed a chocolate pretzel stout with the Crafty Ladies Beer Club, based at Denver's Highland Tap and Burger. Last year, he worked with the Denver Zoo to create a Belgian-style saison brewed with Asian spices and local Colorado honey to commemorate the arrival of a new Asian elephant to Denver from a zoo in Antwerp, Belgian.

It's all part of his philosophy of crafting interesting yet approachable beers that are a bit ahead of the curve.

"It's hard sometimes to make a beer that really pops, because the beer culture is changing so much," Griffith said. "You can make a great, straightforward-style beer and no one will say 'boo' about it because it's not exciting or new.

"It feels like, as a brewer, you have to constantly be changing and be working on the next big thing. Working here at FATE, I'm fortunate to have input from lots of people who have some great ideas."

When Lawinski was a beer-buyer for West End Tavern, he said, he "was constantly searching for different, small-batch beers" to pour at the restaurant. He met Griffith, who was brewing for Golden City Brewery in Golden at the time, at a beer festival and the two struck up a relationship.

"If you've ever been to Golden City, it's like a two-story, two-car garage," Lawinski said. "When I met Jeff and tasted the quality of beer that was coming out of there, I was really impressed by what he was doing.

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